ORAL TRADITION 16.2 - The Oirat Epic Cycle of...

Oral Tradition, 16/2 (2001): 402-435

The Oirat Epic Cycle of Jangar

Chao Gejin

Introduction

It is difficult or impossible to specify the exact moment of theemergence of Mongolian epic. As far as we know, no convincing clues haveever been found about epic singing in surviving documents composed byhistorians, missionaries, and travelers over the past few centuries. TheRussian historian B. Vladimirtsov points out that a predisposition towardepic and perhaps even epic narrative patterns existed among the North Asianhunters and herdsmen in earlier eras and developed during Chinggis Khan’stime, which is also the period of the rise of Mongol nationality. Through theend of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century, large epicsongs, known as byliny, and epic cycles were created. Martial concerns,military achievements, and, most importantly, the steppe aristocratic classprovided a supportive framework for the evolution of epic singing.

One piece of evidence is The Secret History of the Mongols, which isfilled with epic motifs and characteristics even though it is a history ofChinggis Khan and his “golden family.”1 The earliest printed epic text wasThe Beijing Geser Wooden Block, which appeared in 1716. As for the epic

Author’s note: I am aware that international scholars use different methods to

transcribe the Mongolian language. To avoid confusion over different dialects, I followthe written spelling. Thus I do not differentiate masculine from feminine, as somescholars have in the past. For instance, I spell hand as gar and yurt as ger. To take anexample from the literary context, the phrase hüreng haljan hölög (a sorrel horse with awhite spot on its forehead) alliterates perfectly and would not cause any confusion,whereas spelling the same phrase as küreng qaljan külüg would. Furthermore, in a veryfew cases, I follow the most common usage, spelling Jang_ar and Hong_or as Jangar andHongor and tegri (heaven) as tenger.

1 See Vladimirtsov 1983-84:6-7. The Secret History of the Mongols is dated to1240 (Heissig 1964:28).

THE OIRAT EPIC CYCLE OF JANGAR 403

Jangar, scholars agree that the prominent Oirat2 epic cycle matured in thefifteenth to seventeenth centuries,3 the period during which the Oirat peoplesmoved to the Tian Shan Mountains, took shape as the “Four Allies of Oirat”(Torgud, Dörbed, and other tribes), and eventually appeared on the banks ofthe Volga in 1630.

We call Jangar an epic cycle because it is composed of many cantoswith close mutual connections. The story as a whole concerns the khanJangar and his twelve warriors’ heroic deeds: how they build up the khan’spalace, how they defeat threatening invaders, how they conquer others’territories, and how they woo and marry beautiful maidens according to thedictates of destiny. Each canto is a somewhat independent story about oneor more of those warriors’ adventures, yet it also shares the overallframework and the basic elements: an opening canto (jangar un ehin bölög)provides essential information about the kingdom, Khan Jangar’s palace, hisincomparable deeds, his distinguished warriors, and his honorable lady.Besides the Jangar cycle, the Oirat people also possess other comparativelyshort epic songs that bear a close relation to Jangar in story-patterns andmotifs. Some of them may have arisen earlier and thus had an influence onJangar.

2 Oirat, also spelled Oyrat, designates any of the peoples speaking western

dialects of the Mongolian language group. Before entering the Mongol steppe, the Oiratwere called “Forest Folks” and lived in Siberia. In the thirteenth century the WesternMongols were enemies of the Eastern Mongols of Chinggis Khan’s empire. During thefollowing centuries the Western Mongols maintained a separate existence under aconfederation known as the Dörben Oirat (Four Allies of Oirat); at times they were allies,at times enemies, of the descendants of Chinggis Khan. A part of the Western Mongolpopulation remained in their homeland, northern Xinjiang, or Dzungaria, and westernMongolia. Another part of the Oirat confederation, including all or some of the Torgud,Khoshud, Dörbed, and other groups, moved across southern Siberia to the southern Uralsat the beginning of the seventeenth century. From there they moved to the lower Volga,and for a century and a half, until 1771, they lived as nomads both to the east and to thewest of the lower Volga; this part of the Oirat gained the name Kalmyk. During thecourse of the eighteenth century the Oirat were absorbed by the Russian Empire, whichwas then expanding to the south and east. In 1771 those on the left bank, to the east ofthe Volga, returned to China. The right-bank Kalmyk, comprising the contemporaryTorgud, Dörbed, and Buzawa, remained in Russia.

3 See Rinchindorji 1999:195.

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Texts

Among the Kalmyk in Russia, 25 cantos of Jangar have beencollected, with exactly the same number discovered and printed in theMongolian Republic; about half of the latter 25 cantos are only provisionallyidentified as belonging to the Jangar cycle. The Oirat Mongols in theXinjiang area of northwest China have maintained the Jangar singingtradition up to the present time. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, theXinjiang Jangar Office combed the Mongol area to collect and record epic.According to the office’s reports, 106 jangarchi (singers) were recorded.4

As a major result, the twelve-volume publication entitled Jangar Material,with 124 cantos, was issued in successive installments.5

The author suggests classifying the various Jangar texts into fivetypes: retold texts, dictated texts, manuscripts, transcriptions of audiorecordings, and lithographed and modern printings.

Retold texts

The Jangar epic was first told to the outside world by the Germantraveler Benjamin Bergmann at the beginning of the nineteenth century(Bergmann 1804-05). He encountered the nomadic Kalmyks in the Astraxangovernment during the years 1802-03. In his publication of a few years laterhe retells two stories about the hero Jangar. In the 1940s a Chinese Hannamed Bian Yuan composed a story entitled Hong Gu’er. He describedgoing to Xinjiang in 1935 to conduct revolutionary activities and beingcaptured by Governor Sheng Shicai and put in jail. A Mongolian namedManjin, imprisoned along with him, sang the story of Hong Gu’er (orHongor, one of Jangar’s principal warriors) for the captives. Bian Yuantried to keep the story in memory, and when he was released in 1942 hebegan to write it down in Chinese. As he commented later on, “I had a deepimpression of this story . . . I did not make changes to its plot or structure”(1958:77). Through Bergmann’s notes, the outside world first came to knowthat an epic called Jangar was prevalent among the Kalmyks in the LowerReach of the Volga River, though Bergmann mentioned neither the singer’snor the interpreter’s name (no evidence exists to show that he spoke

4 See Jangar Manuscript 1996:vol. 3.

5 Jangar Material 1985-96. These 124 stories are not independent; some of themare highly homologous. Thus the total number of independent cantos found in Xinjiangis considerably less than 124.


Kalmyk). Through Bian Yuan’s retold story, people first realized that anepic story about a hero named Hong Gu’er circulated among the OiratMongols in Xinjiang. These retold texts reveal important information aboutthe epic singing tradition.

Dictated texts

The Russian Mongologist A. Bobrovnikov published one of his twoJangar texts in Russian translation in 1857. The two texts had belonged toO. Kovalevskij and G. I. Mikhailov, respectively. Scholars believe that atleast Mikhailov’s text was a genuine dictated text, taken down with the helpof a local Kalmyk amanuensis.6 Another Russian Mongologist, K.Golstunskij, conducted epic recording in 1862, once again with the aid of aKalmyk assistant.7 Nomto Ochirov, a student of Golstunskij’s epigonos W.L. Kotwicz, visited the great jangarchi Eela Ovlaa (1857-1920) in December1908, and in two days managed to take down the singer’s entire Jangarrepertoire of nine cantos via dictation. The Finnish philologist Gustav JohnRamstedt elicited a great many dictated texts—including some of the epicJangar—during his several journeys to the Mongol regions. He describedhis field methods in this way: “I got girls, boys, and oldsters to relate epics.Like the Russian merchants who buy up different kinds of goods in theMongolian countryside, I played the part of a merchant. I bought songs andepics, proverbs, riddles, and similar things. I let it be known about that Ipaid five copecks per page for transcriptions in a black-covered notebook,but if the text in my opinion was free of errors I would pay even up to tencopecks.” (1978:78). Obviously, dictated texts require two participants: theperson who takes down the dictation must have adequate knowledge of thelanguage, and the person who narrates the story must have the patience tostay the course. Golstunskij apparently tried to elicit more dictated texts, butfailed for an interesting reason—not because of a lack of singers, butbecause those he worked with were unaccustomed to being interruptedduring performance to allow time for someone to copy the libretto into hisnotebook.8

6 Minzu Wenxue Yicong 1983-84:i, 235.

7 Minzu Wenxue Yicong 1983-84:ii, 146-47.

8 Minzu Wenxue Yicong 1983-84:ii, 150.

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Manuscripts

Scholars have known that Jangar manuscripts were discovered inRussia and the Mongolian Republic, but we do not have further informationabout the discoveries. From the mid-1950s to the 1980s ten manuscriptswere found in Xinjiang, China. As far as we know, a few of them are almostthe same as the printed Kalmyk versions—which were transmitted in someareas in Xinjiang from the late 1940s onward—and the rest are in accordwith some local singers’ songs. Some scholars firmly believe that thetradition of making Jangar manuscripts began shortly after the Oirat “clearscript” (todo bichig) was invented in 1648, and lasted until the 1950s.9

Rinchindorji contends that at least the manuscript Hara Hinis, stored in thelibrary of the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences, is a copy of theKalmyk version printed in Russian. According to Batunasan’s report(1984), the princes and aristocrats in the Oirat area maintained the traditionof preserving Jangar manuscripts. It was the Cultural Revolution thatdestroyed the majority of those precious artifacts (Jamcha 1988:26).

In general, Oirat manuscripts were created when an aristocrat hired anamanuensis to record the singer’s libretto; in rare cases, a literate singerwould write down his own libretto. In a sense, such manuscripts are quiteclose to a dictated text. We suggest distinguishing between them byconsidering two factors: the conductor who arranges for the transcription,and the purpose of the text-creation. If a text is taken down by an outsider,and the purpose is scientific research or introduction to the outside world,then we call it a dictated text. If insiders write out the text for their own use,the product is, from this point of view, a manuscript.

Transcriptions of audio recordings

It is hard to slow down a singer’s pace in order to make dictationfeasible. The practical and convenient way to do so, of course, is to use anaudio tape recorder, although we still lack a precise evaluation of howmodern audio technology influences the singer’s performance. Experiencedfieldworkers readily recognize that an outsider with strange machines willalways make a singer nervous, and that the singer will find that performingfor a microphone is quite different from singing for his folk audience. Insuch artificial circumstances, interactions between singer and audiencedisappear. We are also aware that performance consists of more than the

9 Jangar Manuscript 1996:5.


libretto: gesture, voice, and musical instrumentation all converge in helpingto convey epic meaning; audio recording cannot preserve all these elements.Still, transcription does encode a singer’s libretto with reasonable precision,even if it does present a special challenge.

We should point out here that in China quite a few transcriptions areunreliable. This inaccuracy stems partly from transcribers and editors whoconsider their own knowledge of the traditional folk culture more authenticthan the singers’ (some of them do in fact come from the same culture). Onthat basis they believe they have the right and duty to emend a libretto.10

The twelve-volume Jangar Material in “clear script” is less heavily edited.One ideal transcription, made by the young native scholar D. Taya, wasprinted in Japan in 1999. Entitled Jangar of Singer Arimpil: Heroic Epic ofOirat-Mongol in Xinjiang, this is the first emendation-free corpus of onejangarchi’s libretto in China.

Lithographed and modern printings

Lithographed and modern printings started with Bergmann’s notes,and Jangar has seen numerous printed versions over the past two hundredyears. The Kalmyk script lithograph version appeared in 1864 in St.Petersburg, and the famous Eela Ovlaa’s ten-canto Jangar was published in1910 in Kalmyk as well. In China, the most important versions include “thefifteen-canto version,” “the 70-canto version,” “the 124-canto version,” andthe photocopy of the Jangar manuscript. But the avenue from oral librettoto publication is not a one-way street; we also found that the printed storyinfluenced oral epic singing in some cases. In the 1940s, Bolod of theMongol Hüriye went to Tashkent to take a training course. When he cameback, he brought with him a twelve-canto printed version of Jangar from theformer Soviet Union. Those stories then spread throughout the neighboringregions (Rinchindorji 1999:69). We also learned that the Beijingxylographic epic Geser (which appeared in Beijing in 1716) had a distinctinfluence on the oral singing of Jangar (Vladimirtsov 1983-84).

10 I cite one case to illustrate how emendation operates. In Jangar Material

1998:i, 739, we read the following note: “This canto (dogsin hara hinis un bölög) iscompiled and emended by A. Taibai, based on Arimpil’s singing, with reference to theearly manuscript and two variants from the singer Jawa of Mongol Hüriye and the singerBinba of Tekes.”

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Singers

According to various widespread legends, the earliest jangarchi canbe traced back to the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenthcentury. Here is the story. It was claimed that Jangar had a total of 72cantos, and that no singer had been able to master all of them. There was,however, an old couple, Tur Bayar and his wife Tübsinjirgal, who lived inHobagsair (now Hobagsair County). Tur Bayar was in the habit of putting apiece of stone under his Mongolian gown every time he had mastered onecanto. The stones kept increasing in number until they reached 70. Theprince was very glad to hear of his capability: he conferred upon him thetitle of “seventy-canto pouch” (dalan tobchi) and announced the title to the49 banners within the Four Allies of Oirat. This all took place before thehorde of the Oirat moved to the Volga (Batunasun 1984:42). It is worthmentioning that Hobagsair is a region with a strong Jangar tradition; forexample, the prominent jangarchi Sisina Bolor (mid-nineteenth to earlytwentieth century) and Holbar Bayar (?-1943) came from this region. Thetwo best contemporary singers, Juunai (1926-) and Arimpil (1923-94) arealso from this area.

Eela Ovlaa (1857-1920) is the single most famous jangarchi. Hisfamily was well known for its association with the epic tradition of Jangarsinging. According to the Kalmyk scholar A. Kichikov’s research, Ovlaa’sfamily’s singing genealogy proceeds in this way:

1st generation: Jintemür 1690-17202nd generation: Jinceg 1720-603rd generation: Chagan Emegen 1760-18004th generation: Khusmu 1800-806th generation: Ovlaa 1880-192011

The time spans following the names indicate the years they performed theepic Jangar, not the years of their birth and death. Ovlaa’s father Oela wasnot an epic singer (thus the lack of a fifth generation), so Ovlaa learned theepic from his two uncles, Delter and Margasi. Ovlaa’s stammer meant thathe had to expend great effort to become a singer, but he succeeded at last.Ovlaa started his performing career in the 1880s, and won great fame in lateryears.

Juunai was born in Hobagsair in 1926. His father Jaba was theprince’s toaster, and was thus in a position to foster his education. As aliterate epic singer, he learned eight cantos from manuscripts. These

11 Rinchindorji 1999:29.


manuscripts contained jangarchi Sira Nasun’s libretto, written down by thesinger himself, and presented to the prince’s amanuensis Uljitu as a gift.Juunai was a pupil of Uljitu from the age of seven, and therefore had readyaccess to the manuscripts and the opportunity to master them. Yet Juunaialso learned quite a few cantos directly from his father and from otherqualified local singers, like Holbar Bayar and Sira Nasun; in other words,some of his repertoire stemmed from an oral source. With 26 cantos to hiscredit, Juunai is identified as the one who can sing the most units from theJangar cycle. As it turns out, his family background helped him greatly inbecoming a jangarchi. We now know that both his grandfather Erhetü andhis father Jaba were excellent singers in the community. Like one of hisepic teachers, he wrote his libretto down himself.

Arimpil was born three years earlier than his countryman Juunai.With 21 cantos of Jangar in his repertoire by the early 1990s, Arimpil is themost prominent illiterate jangarchi ever known. He was born to a familybelonging to the Torgud tribe, now resident in the Hobagsair MongolianAutonomous County of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Hisfather Purlai was Prince Erligjab’s messenger. Their neighbors includedHolbar Bayar, a very famous jangarchi. Since the singer and the messengerwere close neighbors and friends, Arimpil enjoyed the privilege of listeningto Bayar’s Jangar singing from the time he was about seven or eight yearsof age. The majority of Arimpil’s repertoire comes from this earlyexperience.

Arimpil’s father was a devout Buddhist; hence he sent his son to alamasery, hoping to add one more lama to his family. But Arimpil was morefond of singing heroic stories than reciting the Buddhist lection, and the onlything he achieved during his lamasery experience was the acquisition of amodest amount of Tibetan. To force him to continue learning the Buddhistlection, his father then sent him to his uncle Dambi, the prince’s augur, whenthe young man was seventeen years old. But once again the plan backfired:an elderly neighbor of his uncle Höhegünjen attracted Arimpil via hisJangar singing. In addition, he had the chance to learn from anotherjangarchi, Ijir Aliya, a poor singer who made a living through epicperformance, and who used to drop in occasionally at Höhegünjen’s. WithinArimpil’s repertoire, the canto Hündü Gartai Sabar in Bölög was learnedfrom Bayar, while Hongor’s Wedding was learned from Aliya. His unclechided him time and again for sinking into epic singing, and his fatherwarned him that, since he was a Buddhist, he was not allowed to performepics like Jangar and Geser, which were full of killing and other forms ofviolence. To perform those stories, he claimed, was to “commit a sin.” But

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his father’s warning went unheeded; When Arimpil was eighteen he begansinging Jangar for his neighborhood and at children’s gatherings.12

With the advent of Communism in China, he became a People’sCommune member, working as a coal miner and then as a farmer. Hecontinued to sing Jangar for native audiences in his spare time through the1950s and early 1960s. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), he wascriticized for promoting old ideology through Jangar singing; he was evenimprisoned for about two months. Other accusations centered around one ofhis uncles, who had been a chamberlain of a Living Buddha, and anotheruncle who used to perform Cham (the Buddhist exorcism ritual in whichlama performers wear masks). By his own actions and those of his relatives,his accusers argued, Arimpil was surely the protector of the old nationaltradition and the “feudal trash.” Specifically, he was charged as a“reactionary and silent resister” of “the revolutionary new ideology.” Hisdefense against these charges was that his singing was beneficial to therevolution, since he had entertained the revolutionary commune members intheir spare time, helping them to recover after a day of demanding labor.

Good fortune came to him after 1980; the starting point was a visit byChoijinjab, a professor of linguistics at Inner Mongolia University. He madea recording of Arimpil’s epic singing, and as a result the bard gained entry tomore and more social activities. He was invited to Jangar singing pageantsin various places.13 He also visited Urumchi, the capital of the XinjiangUygur Autonomous Region, several times in order to perform Jangar fordomestic and foreign scholars. In 1989 he was summoned to Beijing toparticipate in the Jangar Exhibition: he performed the epic for anenthusiastic audience, and a brief biography, together with photographs, wasexhibited during the show. Arimpil was nominated to the Chinese Folk ArtsSociety, Xinjiang Branch, and was elected his county’s Committeeman ofthe Political Consultant Congress in 1984. He won the First Grade Award ofthe State Ministry of Culture in 1989 and of the Xinjiang Jangar Society in1991. He died in Hobagsair County on May 20, 1994 (Chao 2000:120-24).

The lives and experiences of Juunai and Arimpil epitomize the destinyof jangarchis during the past century. What of the status of other singers? Ioffer here a brief sketch.

12 He did not, however, learn any musical instruments to accompany his epicsinging.

13 The Xinjiang Jangar Office organized many such pageants during the 1980s. Bygathering jangarchis from neighboring areas and asking them to perform, they were ableto record a large number of texts.


Long-term investigations of Jangar and of jangarchis in Xinjiangbegan in 1979 and have continued to the present day. According to differentsources, 106 singers have been identified and their performances recorded.Compared to the entire Mongolian population of 120,000 scattered acrossthis large space, the performers represent only a tiny group. The basicqualification for being considered a jangarchi was that the singer perform atleast one complete canto of Jangar.

The ages of the singers (distributed according to date of birth) are asfollows:

11 born between 1900-1038 born between 1911-2033 born between 1921-3010 born between 1931-4010 born between 1941-504 born between 1951-58

During this long-term investigation, a significant percentage of the elderlysingers passed away. Their demise and our analysis of the surviving singers’ages show that the singing tradition has approached its very last stage.Generally speaking, this folk oral tradition no longer exists in the Oiratterritory. My fieldwork reveals that some aged herdsmen—not to mentionyoung people—have never even heard a Jangar performance! When askedabout Jangar and jangarchi in Melchig summer camp in Wen Quan Countyin 1999, three old herdsmen told me they had some knowledge of the storyand of people talking about it, but were personally unacquainted with itsperformance.

Consider this anecdote as a measure of the state of the tradition. Asinger named Jongarab was sitting in his summer yurt on the bank of theJambinama River, rolling a cigarette with a small piece of local newspaperwhen we dropped in. According to various reports, the Bayanbulag area inwhich he lived was a hotbed of Jangar tradition. But what the singer saidtook us by surprise: he calmly told us that his last performance took placeover 20 years ago when a university professor visited him in 1979 to recordhis Jangar. Jongarab had not had a single chance to tell the old story toanyone until we arrived that afternoon. Four grandchildren lived with him,but none had learned a single line of the epic.

The tribal backgrounds of the singers show the following pattern:

62 singers from the Torgud21 singers from the Ogeled15 singers from the Chahar

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7 singers from the Hoshod1 singer from the Chinese

More than half of the singers were from the Torgud tribe, indicating that theTorgud people served as the major tradition-bearers among the “Four Alliesof Oirat.” This breakdown provides circumstantial evidence for the rumorcited by Vladimirtsov that the Torgud regard Jangar as their own tribalheroic poetry (1983-84). The same hypothesis is also suggested by the long-term investigator Jamcha.14

The Jangarchi (Jangar singer) Jongarab performing the epic Jangar in 1999.Photograph by the author.

14 “It is quite possible that Jangar first emerged among the Torgud, one of the

“Four Allies of Oirat,” and then spread through the other Oirat tribes and became theircommon heritage” (Jamcha 1988:88).


The singers’ repertoire is another indicator of the health and recenthistory of the singing tradition:

26 cantos: Juunai21 cantos: Arimpil6 cantos: T. Badma, Jawa4 cantos: Badibazar, Harz’ha2-3 cantos: 33 different singers1 canto: 67 different singers

At least until the early decades of the twentieth century there were stillprofessional singers. The top local singer would be awarded a title such as“the prince’s jangarchi”; some of them were even retained in the prince’spalace or yurt in order to please their master, earning their livelihood entirelyby performing for him. Competitions were held among the princes to verifytheir singers’ qualifications; these events offered the masters an opportunityto gain honor and respect through their singers’ performance. SomeHobagsair singers recalled that their prince’s jangarchi, Sisina Bolor,boasted a repertoire of about 30 cantos.

Of the 106 singers under consideration, 103 were male and only threewere female. Sixty-two were illiterate and 44 were literate. Although notaboo prevents it, it is much harder and rarer for a woman to become a singerthan for a man. Statistically, unlettered Torgud males are most likely tobecome singers.

According to field notes made by the staff of the Xinjiang JangarOffice, and my own experience, we now know that jangarchis who belongto a family tradition are called yasun-u jangarchi, meaning “singer with afamily background.” This designation also means their singing is normallymore authentic. The training undergone by singers varies quite a lot; nosingle routine predominates; on the other hand, singers normally startlearning the craft at an early age, and an excellent memory, passion, andinspiration are highly valued qualities for aspirants. As a special group inthe community, singers enjoy respect from their audience, no matter theirsocial class. The natural respect in which they are held differentiates themfrom epic bards in contiguous Chinese society, where folk artists (yi ren)have traditionally been looked down upon.

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A Mongolian yurt in Southern Xinjiang. Photograph by the author.

Performance

Thanks to field notes only recently accessed,15 we now know that theepic Jangar was performed in military camps, on long journeys of merchantcaravans, in herdsmen’s yurts, and also, if not most often, in the steppearistocrat’s palace. It is hard to imagine that any large feast or importantoccasion for entertainment went without such a performance in the old days.The Oirat people were so fond of Jangar that they spent whole days andnights listening to a singer’s story. Performance contexts varied from placeto place: the epic could be sung in any season but was, generally speaking,more likely on a winter night. Sitting around a fire with tobacco and hotmilk-tea, people were immersed in the narrative of the hero’s glorious deeds.The nomadic campsite was normally rather small, consisting of only a fewfamilies, so it was natural that most of the performances took place in frontof small audiences. On the other hand, during the Jangar competitions onceorganized by princes, and more recently by the Jangar Office, large groups

15 See Jiang Ge’er Lunwen Ji 1988 and Jangar Manuscript 1996:vol. 3.


of people tended to gather, some of them from afar. Such pageants aretermed jangar un danggar, meaning a large performance or competition ofjangarchi.

Some taboos connected with Jangar are reported, suggesting thatpeople in different regions have different notions. What I have learned viamy field trips are the following: in Wen Quan County people firmly believethat to sing Jangar during the daytime would offend the deities and thuscause disasters. In Bayanbolog in southern Xinjiang, the singer Jongarabclaimed that performing at an hour other than nighttime would insure thesinger’s poverty. Most people are convinced that the only proper time isafter dark. Some even stress that the door and window (a dormer on top of ayurt) should be shut tightly. Yet some singers dare to break the prohibition.One Jangar pageant was held at Salihintai Commune in Usu County in1988. Since this was an extension of the international Jangar Symposiumheld in Urumchi, most of the famous jangarchis were gathered togetherthere. After a large opening ceremony with a ritual conducted by a group oflamas, these singers performed Jangar to large audiences during thedaytime; bursts of rifle fire ensured that their activities were protected.

A more common injunction prohibits learning all of the Jangarcantos; if a person ever were to accomplish this impossible feat, he would bein dire jeopardy. Daring to perform all the cantos of the cycle would shortenhis life. Conversely, there is a strong prohibition against singing anincomplete canto, and such an action would also lead to one’s doom. This isto say, during one performance a singer would sing neither all the cantos norany incomplete canto; there is no record of anyone declaring mastery of allthe cantos in the cycle. As for how many cantos the epic actually has, theanswers are varied: in Hobagsair County legend prescribes 72, while in otherregions 12 or 36 is the customary number (the belief in twelve cantos maystem from the tradition that Jangar has twelve warriors). Jangar isconsidered sacred and is thought to possess magical power. The bardShokai, a 49-year-old Dörbed Mongolian herdsman, told us that in hisexperience singing it too frequently is harmful. He emphasized that his elderbrother Badam lived only 42 years because he performed Jangar toofrequently. Before we left, Shokai added that singing the epic too frequentlywould be harmful not only to the offending jangarchi but also to hisoffspring.

Some singers believe that the epic is genuine history, and that thecentral hero Jangar still has magical power, even though he lived long ago.This is the chief reason why one cannot shorten or modify the epic plots.The following dialogue reveals Arimpil’s opinion of the epic and its hero(Chao 2000:286):

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Interviewer: Some jangarchis make embellishments to the story, enlargeits plots; what do you think of this behavior?

Arimpil: I think this is not proper. First, Jangar is real history; second,Jangar himself has magical power. Thus, to add irrelevant things isblasphemous. What’s more, it would really be ridiculous if [Jangar]survived a fifteen-headed monster but could not escape the jangarchis.

If nothing can be changed, are the songs that jangarchis have performed forgenerations always the same? The answer is surely negative. It is wellknown that the folk songs keep changing, and different historical layers—atboth the lexical and plot levels—demonstrate the evolution of the cycle.Still, most of the singers insist that they follow the traditional way. Oneexample of the discrepancy between singers’ beliefs and actuality wasArimpil’s frustration over the differences between his published libretto andhis sense of how the song should go. When his niece read his libretto aloud,a version that had been subjected to editors’ embellishments and then printedtogether with some other bards’ songs from Xinjiang, he complainedafterward that “it seems these are not my Jangar songs. They are mixedwith other jangarchis’ songs. These are not my Jangar” (Chao 2000:130).As we mentioned, there are at least two kinds of changes involved: lexical orphraseological emendation and story reorganization. Five cantos of hisstories are printed under both his name and the names of one or two othersingers.16

To perform something sacred and avoid unexpected harm, a singerneeds “conducting rites,” often including animal sacrifice. Muta (a latejangarchi’s wife from Chagantongga village in Wen Quan County) told usthat a live white sheep with a yellow head must be tied in front of the gate ifall twelve cantos of Jangar are to be sung. As soon as the performance isover the sheep will die of a stomach malfunction. If the sheep does not die,then the singer’s belly would become distended and he would die. Fromanother family we heard that the animal bearing the punishment in front ofthe gate should be a white horse rather than a yellow-headed white sheep.But all agree that such a sacrifice is not necessary if one plans to sing only afew cantos. In Wen Quan County, we heard that burning incense and havinga lama recite some lection is another rite. It illustrates how the people thereunderstand Jangar singing as a serious event in their lives.

It is also said that performing Jangar exerts a strong influence onnature and human activity. For instance, to sing the epic before hunting

16 Jangar of Singer Arimpil 1999:453-58.


brings people good fortune; it elevates the Mongolian people’s spirit(himori). We were also told that it nourishes mountains, meadows, andrivers. Possible negative effects of too frequent performance includeshortening one’s life, condemning one’s offspring to misfortune, orlengthening a severe winter.

The main function of Jangar singing, however, is entertainment, asrevealed most clearly through performances by the prince’s jangarchis,which were intended to please the prince, his family, and his honored guests.A prince’s jangarchis can be divided into two basic types: the wanderingsinger who is conferred a title by the prince and makes a living by singingpublicly, and the bard with the same title who relies primarily on his masterfor his livelihood. Since this rank represented a great honor, it was highlytreasured within the singers’ circle. The usual arrangement was that a fewfamilies invited a jangarchi to assume such a position jointly; they wouldthen share the related expenses, which included sheep, cows, and money.An animal sacrifice was also included if necessary. But a prince’s rewardwas customarily much handsomer: after a first-rate show, a singer might berewarded with a horse, a camel, silk, tea, or other valuable goods.

As for the singing melodies, the experienced investigator Jamchareports that they can be grouped by regions; certain communities typicallypossess their own repertoires of melodies, marking discernible regionalstyles (Jamcha 1988:26). Arimpil observes that only renowned jangarchishad their own personal tunes, and that only they can create new melodies. Inaddition, certain cantos have specific musical patterns. As for his ownmelodies, Arimpil confirms that they are from his teacher Holbar Bayar.17

Investigators’ reports18 reveal that musical instruments like the hugur(huur), horsehead fiddle (morin huur), tobsigur (tobshur), and lute (pipa)were used to accompany Jangar performance. Most common is thetobshur,19 played by the singers themselves when performing the epic.

17 The young researcher Taya found six types of melodies used in Arimpil’s epic

singing (Jangar of Singer Arimpil 1999).

18 See Vladimirtsov 1983-84, Jamcha 1996, and Batunasun 1988.

19 The tobsigur or topshuur (from the verb tobsihu, “to pluck”) is a two-stringedplucked lute traditionally used to accompany heroic epics in some Mongol regions. It isalso found among the Manchu people. Two-stringed lutes have been associated with theMongols since Marco Polo’s thirteenth-century description of instruments played beforebattle. Tobsigur bodies vary in shape according to ethnic and family traditions. Theinstruments of the Baits, Dörbeds, and Hotons may be small and round, and some Altai,Urianghais, and Torguds make necked-bowl tobsigurs. In any case, the skin covering the

418 CHAO GEJIN

Story-pattern

Like other Mongolian epics, and Turkic epic traditions as well,20

Jangar is a nonhistorical cycle. Accordingly, its motifs and story-lines donot correlate with historical events or particular people’s biographies;instead, they follow traditionally molded patterns. In his influential accountof Mongolian epic structures Walther Heissig offered his insights on the“fourteen motif series”21; these have been widely applied in the past twodecades by epic scholars in China, ever since the article was translated intoChinese in 1983.22 Because the Jangar cycle shares motif series with otherMongolian epics, I will not go into a lengthy explanation of how motifs areorganized and stories are composed in the Jangar singing tradition. Instead,I will briefly discuss Jangar’s story-pattern. It quickly becomes apparentthat the preponderant story-pattern is infighting; the secondary one ismatrimony; lesser narrative sequences—e.g., the alignment between heroesor kingdoms, probably a reflex of the infighting type—also exist within thecycle. Matrimony is an independent type, relatively rare and very simple inplot and structure.

The epic story-patterns are in some sense the embodiment of theMongolian epic ideology. The core of that ideology is conflict: infightingbetween good and evil represented by the hero versus his opponent. In theinfighting story-type, a hero conducting a war or a duel naturally constitutesthe central plot. Astonishingly, fighting is the fundamental plot in thematrimony type pattern. The hero either has to pass successfully throughone or a series of duels against other suitors, or must take part in the “threemanly games,” which include archery, wrestling, and horseracing, so as towin the bride’s hand. To make the matrimony epic more warlike, a

instrument should be as thin as possible and is therefore often taken from the groin of ananimal such as a horse, sheep, or goat. Among Baits and Dörberds, strings are made fromsheep intestines that, after being cleaned and washed several times, are stretched andtwisted clockwise and counterclockwise, and then dried. Strings are tuned to an intervalof one-fourth.

20 See Chadwick and Zhirmunsky 1969:142-59.

21 See Heissig 1979. The fourteen motif-series consists of (1) time, (2) the hero’sbirth, (3) the hero’s locality, (4) the hero himself, (5) the hero’s steed, (6) the expedition,(7) the sworn brother and aide, (8) threats, (9) the enemy, (10) fighting the enemy, (11)the hero’s stratagem, (12) courtship, (13) wedding, and (14) return to the homeland.

22 Minzu Wenxue Yicong 1983-84:i, 352-75.


sequence of vital tests or challenges set by the bride’s father is usuallyadded; these involve conquering dangerous beasts or monsters, winningprecious objects, and so on. Bravery is necessary for the hero-suitor, and thecompetitions reveal his fighting nature. Even in a minor story-pattern, suchas facing down a warrior and converting him into a sworn brother, infightingis still the core plot. In a word, heroes are idealized while monsters aredemonized, creating a great contrast between the two parties in most Jangarcantos.

The majority of the cantos share the same beginning and ending:Jangar and his twelve warriors and his eight thousand soldiers (in Ovlaa’scantos, there are six thousand and twelve warriors instead of eight thousand)are feasting in the palace. This is a special framework that structurallyaligns the majority of the song-units; the exceptions are a couple of cantosthat deal with the infant Jangar and the beginning stages of the Bumbakingdom. What happens between these regular “bookends” remainsflexible. To create internal coherence within this large cycle, Jangar alsodepends on a lengthy protasis to lay the groundwork—telling about Jangar’sheroic deeds from an early age, his lady, his palace, his kingdom, hiswarriors, his steed, and so on. We see these features clearly in Arimpil’sseventeen-canto collection, three cantos of which retell stories of the earlydeeds of the hero Jangar and the establishment of his Bumba kingdom.These units, together with the closing canto, exhibit the same beginningmotifs mentioned above. Of the remaining thirteen cantos, ten open with thesame scene: in the fifteen-story palace, Jangar and his warriors are busyfeasting. Furthermore, seven begin with exactly the same sentence—Arbantabun dabhur / altan charlig bambalai dotora (“inside the golden, shiningfifteen-story palace”). The other three cantos start with large passagesdozens of lines long depicting the Bumba kingdom solely from the protasis.After these similar lead-ins, which provide a general background for thestory, the feast motif appears again—together with its fixed verses andidentical function—to start the story.

Language

Until recently, Jangar was still a living tradition. But is the epiclanguage the same as the singers’ and their audience’s everyday language?An answer to this question is given in an interview between the singerJongarab and myself in 1999:

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Chao Gejin: Is the epic language different from our daily language?Jongarab: [They are] different.C: What are the differences?J: [laugh] In the old days Mongols used to haila* Jangar in that way.C: With melody?J: Yes, sing it with melody. And now they narrate it.(*hailahu, a word created by the Oirat people and used in reference to epicsinging, means to perform in verse and melody)

Obviously, this is more than a concern with performing the story with orwithout melody. Present-day bards “tell” Jangar , while in the pastjangarchis used to haila Jangar. Haila means to perform in traditional epiclanguage—that is, in verse, with certain melodies and specific stylescharacterized by fixed phrases and ornaments. Jongarab clearly knew thatthe traditional epic language differs from his usual, unmarked language.Most contemporary singers, however, do not possess that specializedlanguage; they can tell the epic only in a register close to their everydaylanguage. People talk a lot about how the singing tradition has declined, andthat is undoubtedly true. The loss of the epic language is one of thesymptoms of that decline.

The epic language, or epic register, can be identified by at least thesefeatures: archaic and foreign words and phrases, a rhythmic dynamic (wordsand phrases created for the purpose of matching the rhythm), and a highdensity of formulaic diction.

In Jangar and the entire Mongolian epic tradition, listeners andreaders encounter “rare” words. For example, I heard the eastern Mongoliansinger (huurchi) Jana use many Chinese idioms to adorn the story in hisFeng Shen Yan Yi. One impressive idiom is yi shou zhe yian, “to cover thesky with one’s palm,” meaning to hide the truth from the masses. Hefollows this idiom with a parallel sentence in Mongolian that serves as agloss or explanation. Correspondingly, one finds Turkic, Tibetan, orSanskrit words and expressions in western Mongolian epic, just as thegeographical proximity of these language groups would suggest. Forinstance, the derivation of Jangar’s kingdom Bumba remains unclear. In theOirat dialect, Bumba means “spring water container”; others, however,believe it stems from Buddhism.23 Jangar’s flag is “a galbar red flag”(galbar ulagan tug): the word galbar comes from the Sanskrit Galbarwasun

23 The Mongolian Dictionary (1999:1038) defines bumba as “a rotund bottle with

a high neck, used in the third part of the Buddhist eight-part sacrifice.”


or Galbaragcha, the name of a tree king who has ten functions and is incharge of satisfying desires.

Archaic words are also used in Jangar. The word alta is an archaismdesignating a unit of measurement equal to an adult’s outstretched arms.Another archaism is bere, a distance of about two kilometers. In short, wedo have some epic words that are no longer used in Oirat people’s daily life,and which have become unusual words—their derivation and meaningblurred over time, and due to other factors as well. Compared to editions ofother folk genres, the epic text always glosses difficult “rare” words.

Many of the epic expressions are very well organized, picturesque,meaningful, and rhythmically melodic. As the English scholar CharlesBawden points out, some Mongolian epic formulae have a long tradition.One example is a couplet—“with embers in the eyes, with fire on thecheeks”—that appears in different epics such as Han Harangui, EgelMergen Haan, and Gants Modon Honogtoi, with almost exactly the sameform (1980:268-99; Bawden’s transcription follows colloquialpronunciation, and thus differs from our literal spelling):

Nüdendee tsogtoi,Nüürendee galtai.

orNüürendee galtai,Nüdendee tsogtoi.

In Arimpil’s Jangar, sung in 1991, the phrase has exactly the same meaningand almost the same wording (the singer uses different prepositions, and wefollow the colloquial pronunciation to agree with Bawden’s example):24

Nüür tal-an galtai,Nüden tal-an tsogtoi.

This couplet formula is also found in The Secret History of the Mongols,which was composed in the mid-thirteenth century. We should emphasizethat this is not the only longstanding formula in present-day Jangar singing.In Arimpil’s Jangar un Ehin Bölög (Protasis of Jangar), another coupletformula captures our notice:

24 Jangar of Singer Arimpil 1999.

422 CHAO GEJIN

Önöchin hübegünÖlögchin nohai üledegel ügei 25

This phrase means to wipe out every single enemy, leaving not even an“orphan-boy, bitch-dog.” It can also be traced back to The Secret History ofthe Mongols.

Experienced listeners and readers are aware that in Mongolian epicssome words should be understood as poetic language. In the epic context,they provide a rhyming partner rather than conveying literal meaning. Hereis one example:

Emnig gool un modo bar [with] Emnig River’s woodElige higsen making the Elige [side parts of a saddle]Hanggal gool un modo bar [with] Hanggal River’s woodHabcha higsen making the Habcha [parts on a saddle]

The two rivers’ names, Emnig and Hanggal, seem only to match the twowords elige and habcha and create the head-rhyming pattern AABB,26 thusmaking this four-line formula a very well organized instance of parallelism.The parallelism here is describing the unique construction of the woodensaddle. Similar words with the same function—to fill rhyming slots—existeverywhere in the epic tradition.

The central feature of the epic language is the use of ready-madeformulae adopted and adjusted by singers from generation to generation.Without the formulae, the epic could no longer exist. A comparison to aclosely related genre provides a clear illustration. While the Oirat hero-taleis similar in story-pattern, plot, and even motif to epic poetry, there aredifferences, some of which are shown via this brief tabulation:

Epic Hero-taleSung often in melody andaccompanied with a musicalinstrument

Narrated without melody andwithout a musical instrument

Singers either professionals oramateurs

Amateur narrators

25 Idem.

26 In the terminology we suggested for Mongolian poetry, alliteration takes theform A-A-A- in one and the same stich, while head-rhyme denotes the repetition of asound at the beginning of successive stichs to form a group of lines with the same initialsound. For further explanation, see Chao 2000.


Mostly in rhyme, highlyformulaic; epic register

Prosaic, everyday language

Molded framework; concernsthe whole world

Snippet; concerns specific event

In practice, an experienced audience can quickly and easily distinguish ahero-tale from an epic on the basis of their respective register. Epiclanguage employs specialized formulaic expression, while the hero-tale ismore likely to use everyday language.

Formulae

Since Jangar consists of lengthy cantos, drawing examples from theentire cycle is impractical: apart from the sheer bulk of material, it would bedifficult or impossible to gain an overall sense of how formulae work in acertain canto. Thus, we choose one canto, entitled Hündü gartai Sabar-unBölög and sung by Arimpil in 1991. In this canto we find a large number ofrepeated phrases, stichs, and stanzas. Repeated units employed as ready-made blocks for composing the epic story in performance are readilyidentified, since they recur in other cantos sung by both Arimpil himself andby other Oirat singers. Some of the formulae even belong to the Mongolianoral tradition as a whole.

There are at least two types of formulae connected to characters in thepoem, namely epithets and characters’ ornaments. Epithets combineprimarily or only with certain personages, while ornaments can be used asindependent units, normally several lines long, to fit various compositionalsituations. Epithets are also comparatively more stable in form and wording.The following phrases are epithets used in our text:

(1) Aldar bogda noyan Jangar Great-famed saint, governor Jangar(2) Dogsin sira mangus hagan Atrocious yellow monster king(3) Asar ulagan Hongor Giant red Hongor(4) Hündü Gartai Sabar Mighty-armed Sabar(5) Dogsin Hara Sanal Atrocious black Sanal(6) Altan chegeji Babai Abaga Gold-chested Babai Abaga(7) Agai Shabdala Gerel hatun Agai Shabdala Gerel Lady

Among singers in this tradition, rhetorical skills are highly regardedand single-stich epithets are not always satisfactory to either singer oraudience. To meet the challenge of demonstrating a high degree of verbalskill, more melodic and refined couplet-epithets are pressed into service:

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Aguu yehe hüchütei With great strengthAsar ulagan Hongor Giant red Hongor

Hümüm nü nachin Eagle among the massHündü gartai Sabar Mighty-armed Sabar

Bolinggar un hübegün The son of BolinggarDogsin hara Sanal Atrocious black Sanal

It is almost an iron-clad rule that Arimpil resorts to an epithet every time heintroduces an epic character. There is also a formula associated withassembling Jangar’s army: “araja in naiman minggan bagatur ud” (“arajaeight thousand warriors”). This is a highly productive fixed phrase as well;it is used in all Arimpil’s cantos as an epithet for the collective troops. Infact, in the canto under examination it occurs in most cases with another lineto form a couplet:

Aldar noyan Jangar ni tologailagad Great-famed governor Jangar headedAraja in naiman minggan bagatur ud Araja eight thousand warriors

Asar ulagan Hongor mini [My] giant red HongorAraja in naiman minggan bagatur ud mini [My] Araja eight thousand warriors

Unlike epithets, which combine only with certain characters, personalornaments normally consist of several lines and are more likely to involveparallelism. Here are some examples:

Irehü yeren yisün jil I The upcoming 99 years [things]Ailadchu mededeg He knows by forecastÖnggeregsen yeren yisün jil i The past 99 years [things]Tagaju mededeg He knows by retrospect

Ama tai hümün People who have mouthsAmalaju bolosi ügei Dare not to gossip [about him]Hele tei yaguma Creatures that have tonguesHelejü bolosi ügei Dare not to talk [about him]

Utalhula When they cut himUlagan chilagun boldag He turns into red rockChabchihula When they cleave himChagan chilagun boldag He turns into white rock


The first example above is used principally to depict the hero AltanChegeji Babai Abaga, first among Khan Jangar’s twelve-warrior team. Heserves as their brain trust, a man of incomparable intelligence who knowsevents of the past 99 years as well as what will happen in the upcoming 99years. This formulaic increment is so common that Eela Ovlaa used it in theAstraxan region of Russia in 1908 and Arimpil employed it in the Xinjiangregion of China 83 years later, in 1991. In fact, almost all the jangarchissummon this formulaic unit when they introduce Altan Chegeji Babai Abagato their audience, always resorting to nearly the same wording.Nevertheless, I would argue that it belongs to the category of ornamentrather than epithet, since it is used as an independent, ready-made unit. Forinstance, we found that other singers press it into service to stress a lady’swisdom (Chao 2000:148).

The second ornament supports an exaggeration conveying Sabar’satrocity: people dare not even mention him, never mind offend him to hisface. This unit is widely used in similar contexts. The third example playsexactly the same role. In our poem it applies to the hero Aliya Shonghor,but wherever it occurs this formula implies that the person described isextraordinarily tough, that one cannot hurt him at all. He becomes a red orwhite rock when cut or cleaved.

It is understandable that singers always try their best to show off theirlanguage skills while describing epic characters. What about other imagesin the epic? Since horses play such a special role in Mongolian epictradition, let us consider the phraseology associated with them. Here thehorse is not a domestic animal but a Mongolian herdsman’s companion.Generally speaking, the horse has never been a nonessential narrativeconvenience: in many cases, it proves much more powerful than its master,playing the decisive role in fighting against a dangerous enemy or incompeting against other suitors. It has the shape and physical characteristicsof an animal, but can think and speak like a human, and possesses magicalpowers normally wielded only by deities. In a word, the horse is a triplecombination of animal, human, and god.27 This composite function isreminiscent of the horse’s role in neighboring Turkic peoples’ epic poetry.28

Now let us see how our singer introduces his hero Sabar’s steed:

27 Cf. Bürinbeki 1997.

28 “It is a noticeable feature of the Turkic poems, as of the Russian byliny, thatwhile the hero may, and often does, forget his heroic quest in the pleasures of eating anddrinking, the horse is never at fault, and invariably recalls him to his senses” (Chadwickand Zhirmunsky 1969:15).

426 CHAO GEJIN

Hüreng haljan hölög Sorrel haljan horse*

(*haljan means “with a white spot on its forehead”)

This phrase appears seven times in this poem, and is also used by Arimpil inother cantos. There is thus no doubt that it functions as a fixed formula. Anexperienced listener would also perceive the melodic phrase in the line,where all three words alliterate in “h.” I would emphasize that—in both thesinger’s and the audience’s minds—the horse conventionally deserves arefined and detailed description. Just like the ornaments that depict a hero’sbravery or his worldwide fame, such phrases celebrate the hero’s powerfulanimal companion. Here are additional examples of the tradition’s regardfor horses:

(1) Tonjir ud un üre Accipiter’s offspring(2) Tonggag gegüü ni unagan Mare’s first colt(3) Naiman minggan aranjal jegerde Eight thousand aranjal reddish-brown

horses(4) Adugun dotora yabugsan Had joined [the herd](5) Agula bügdüreme manggus This manggus is able to carry a mountain(6) Ugchi gi ergime hurdun Swiftly round a hill, his eyes blinking(7) Ochin höhe jaljan hölög Mars grayer haljan horse

The following ornament exhibits head-rhyme in the pattern AABB. Itinforms the audience of how unique the steed is as it eludes a pursuinghorde, carefully protecting its master from any wound:

Bum agta hügebe gejü [When] one hundred thousand horses [with riders] chase from behind

Burugu jöb ügei daldiradag [It] dodges to the left and rightEjen degen mese hürgejü Has never let its master be touched üjeged ügei by [enemy’s] sharp edgeEb tei bugurul haljan hölög tei In fine appearance the gray haljan horse

Similar ornaments are very common in the epic tradition. In my experience,not a single epic is ever performed without formulaic expressions describinghorses. We cannot list all the typical formulae here, but I would like tostress that they cover a wide variety of aspects and situations: the horse’smystical birth, its great size (usually like a mountain), rites for summoning it(burning incense, e.g.), the detailed process of saddling it, the exaggerationof its speed, its magical ability to fly in the sky and travel under the ground,and so forth.


While a generic horse is called mori, agta, adugu, or hölög inMongolian, important ones, like Khan Jangar’s horse, customarily possesstheir own distinct names. For example, the name of Jangar’s steed isAranjal. When referring to normal, generic horses within the epic diction,our singer employs the phrase agta hülüg, a specialized folk poeticdesignation typical of the epic register and different from everyday languageuse.

Our overall aim is to offer a close-range observation on the epicformula from different perspectives. However, it is not easy to limit thenumber of examples and still fashion a clear explanation of how the formulaworks in its phraseological routine. One practical method is to selectrepresentative samples that indicate the differing morphology of formulaicexpression. We will look at the treatment of common utensils first. Thefollowing example is a fixed formula depicting an army banner; thephraseology is highly patterned, with typical head-rhyme:

Dugtui dotora baihula When in the containerDolbing sira-in önggetei The banner has a yellowish colorDugtui eche-ban garhula When out of the containerDologan naran nu gereltei It shines like seven suns

Notice that the aural concord is doubled: ABAB in end-rhyme and AAAA inhead-rhyme. This kind of strictly rhythmic and acoustically patternedformula is usually easily identified as a traditional and commonly used unitof diction. It would not be surprising to learn that the Kalmyk jangarchiEela Ovlaa employed the same unit about a hundred years ago. It is a rulethat widespread formulae are more likely to have such melodic sounds, strictrhythm, and perfect parallelism; these features help to preserve them over abroad variety of usage by different singers in different times and places. Asfor the implications of this expression, some may see it as simply adescriptive formula, emphasizing the nonpareil nature of Jangar Khan’sarmy banner. But I would argue for something beyond a merely materialconnotation. From a traditional perspective the banner unit serves iconicallyas a symbol of the Khan’s army, especially the troop’s position on thebattlefield. This kind of formula is thus both expressively thrifty andpowerfully visual: when the scene turns to the battle array, the singer callsforth an army banner rather than rehearsing the details of the entire troop.

A similar formula stands symbolically for Khan Jangar’s palace:

Arban tabun dabhur Fifteen-storiedAltan charlig bambalai dotora Golden, shining palace

428 CHAO GEJIN

This two-line phrase appears most often at the beginning and end of virtuallyevery Jangar canto. It is associated with a typical scene: the Khan and hiswarriors feast here, threatening messages from dangerous enemies arrivehere, vital decisions concerning the kingdom usually are made here, grandexpeditions set off from here, and quarrels and clashes among various heroesoccur here. In short, the khan’s palace is not simply a grand building andshelter, but also the arena in which storylines are begun and solutions arereached.

The next formula is also a fixed phrase about location. It appearsseveral times in our song, and recurs countless times in Arimpil’s otherpoems. Not surprisingly, we find this descriptive unit in other singers’libretti as well.

Ermen chagan hödege Far-reaching white wastelandEjegüi chagan büürüg Masterless white desertElesün sira tohoi du Yellowish sand-sinus

These three lines suit all the similar contexts that answer the generaldefinition of open country. A hero customarily pauses in such a sand-sinusto take a rest from his expedition, but it turns out to be a battlefield as well(in both our sample and in other cantos such as Aliya Monholai-in Bölög, forinstance). When this formula occurs, it idiomatically prefigures a change inthe hero’s fate. In our story, the enemy Sabar would have come to themonster’s aid if Jangar and his army had not stopped him at this sand-sinus.It is also the place where Sabar fights against Hongor, Jangar Khan’sprimary warrior.

Numerals and directions are highly formulaic, and thus worthmentioning as a special type. In most cases, they do not imply any specificquantity, but rather a generic amount like “some,” “many,” and so on. Thefollowing numerals are used very often: 3, 7, 10, 13, 15, 21, 33, 81, and 99.When singer says gurba dahin (three times), for example, it always means“a few times.” The numbers 15 and 21 connote “quite a lot,” while 33, 81,and 99 have the sense of “uncountable.” Within the epic register, when thesinger portrays a hero as having crossed 33 rivers and 99 mountains, he isemploying traditional language to indicate an extremely long way. This istypical poetic expression inasmuch as it avoids abstract terms like “many,”“a large amount,” and the like.

The same rule applies to directions. Statistically, the left or east sideand right or west side are used unequally. In Mongolian shamanism (bögemörgöl), the 99 heavenly deities (tenger) are divided between east and west,


representing evil and good, respectively. It is thus quite understandable thatthe west is more frequently mentioned by our singer.

The epic formulae deal not only with static scenes but also withdynamic actions: for instance, dagulaldun nairlahu (“singing at a get-together”), or hüngginen helen baiba (“to say in a loud voice”). Or, when ahero gets angry, he will conventionally “gnash his thirteen canine teeth, hislarge black eyes blinking”; and when epic characters start out on a journey,“their horses’ mouths are released [from halters] to set out.” Some formulaesimply describe a single action, while others help to narrate a group ofactions, that is, to build up a scene like an escape or duel. In short, thefrequent formulae in Oirat epic tradition cover every aspect of narration andexhibit a high density of recurrence.

Epilogue

The epic Jangar cycle is the unique heritage of the Oirat people.Clues about related traditions reveal that Jangar cantos have been found inother Mongolian regions. They are nevertheless fundamentally Oirat epic.Such non-Oirat Jangar cantos bear a close connection to the original singingtradition in one of two ways: the performers either belong to the Oiratpopulation or learned the songs directly from Oirat singers. In our opinion, afew cantos or fragments scattered here and there, lacking both anycomprehensive repertoire and a qualified audience, can hardly be called anindependent tradition.

From a broader perspective, the Jangar cycle shares manycharacteristics with other Mongolian epic traditions. Stated telegraphically,they include:

1. Same story-patterns: fighting, matrimony, and so on 2. Same motif-series and sequences—starts with hero’s birth, ends with

return home and feast 3. Same versification—includes head-rhyme and parallelism 4. Specialized epic language or register, dense with formulae 5. Nonhistorical nature

6. The hero’s major opponent is a monster called Manggus 7. The horse usually plays an important role in the story

8. Singers are both professional and amateur 9. Epic singing has multiple practical functions10. Epic performance is accompanied by certain rites11. Mainly oral transmission; may involve manuscripts and other forms 12. A strong singing tradition that may arouse folk legends about epic

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heroes or epic singers13. Alien cultures and religions, such as Tibetan Buddhism, are influential

Obviously, Turkic epics manifest some of the same features. Asneighboring peoples through many centuries, Mongols and Turks sharesimilar cultural elements. As Victor Zhirmunsky points out, “Kirghiz andKazakh folklore give many examples of the heroic folklore(Heldenmärchen), with the plot limited by the family and tribal relations of apatriarchal society and the action laid against a fabulous background; buttheir origin, their ideological and artistic content, their motifs and imagery,can be more clearly traced in the more archaic folk-tales of the Turkic andMongolian peoples of southern and eastern Siberia” (Chadwick andZhirmunsky 1969:312).

Mongol and Turkic epic share similar story-patterns. Through thework of Turkic epic scholars,29 we now know that this tradition hasnumerous instances of the matrimony type, the quest for a far-off bride whois destined for the hero. On his journey the hero must overcome variousobstacles, including battles against monsters or hostile heroes who also havesome claim to his bride. Sometimes the hero must enter three militarycontests (wrestling, archery, and horseracing, exactly the same triad as theMongolian Three Manly Games). In addition, the future father-in-law maysend the prospective bridegroom to conquer monsters or perform other deedsof bravery. Although certain details may differ, the reader or listener wouldbe aware that this Turkic epic story replicates the Mongolian matrimonypattern. Fighting, which recounts a blood feud, is another epic type. If weinvestigate the analogy between Turkic and Mongolian fighting epics, wewill find that they are organized in the same order and share commontraditional elements.

Turning our attention from structural to cultural and story-basedfactors, we find other concordant phenomena in the two traditions that revealtheir close connections. In the Turkic epics, for example, the main hero isoften described as having a legendary birth and childhood, with predictionsof future heroism or even kingship. According to this paradigm the boygrows up in poverty, as a shepherd, but eventually attracts the attention of anobleman or the khan himself. In the Oirat Jangar, our hero Jangar has anunusual birth, then becomes an orphan when a monster attacks his homelandand kills his parents. Subsequently he is adopted by a nobleman and worksfor his family. Remarkably, his adoptive parent discovers that the young

29 See Reichl 1992:espec. 143-70; also Chadwick and Zhirmunsky 1969:271-339.


boy is destined to become a khan. In Central Asian versions of Gorogli, thehero has forty warriors at his command.

In the Kirghiz Manas, the warriors (qyrq coro) all have a consistentplace in the epic cycle, and are often portrayed in full, each with his ownbiography. This organization is reminiscent of Jangar’s twelve warriors,each boasting his own epithet and title, playing his hard-won role, and takinghis assigned position under Khan Jangar’s “left hand” or “right hand.” SomeJangar cantos are allocated to them individually (not a common factor inother Mongol epics).

In the Uzbek Gorogli, the hero is portrayed as a wise and powerfulsovereign: a protector of his people against alien invaders. He is also theembodiment of the popular ideal of patriarchal authority, as imaged in hislooking after the good of the people and, in particular, his care of theoppressed and unfortunate. The legendary Age of Gorogli and his stateChambil come in the epic to resemble a popular utopia—a land where, underthe authority of a wise ruler, the eternal dream of social justice comes true.Jangar’s kingdom Bumba is that same utopia. Here the poor becomewealthy, the sick regain their health. People remain twenty-five years oldperpetually, and the four seasons all resemble a gentle spring.

In the Turkic tradition, the epic cycles sometimes tell not only thehero’s story, but also the tales of a second or even a third generation. Thisnarrative stratagy can be seen in the Jangar cycle as well. Not only Jangar’ssecond generation but also Hongor’s and other heroes’ offspring appear inthe epic arena. Scholars have found this scheme in the eastern Mongolianbensen üliger (text-tale), but it occurs only rarely in Mongolian epic poetryfrom other regions.

On another topic, the following statement seems descriptive ofMongolian in general: “The horse is the hero’s main, often his only, helper:it understands human speech and answers in human words, warns the hero ofimpending danger and saves him from death, travels over forest, water andmountains at fabulous speed” (Chadwick and Zhirmunsky 1969:313-14). Infact, the description aptly characterizes the role played by horses in Turkicepic tradition. Other folk narrative elements shared by Turk and Mongolattract special interest, for example when the young hero fights againstdragons or many-headed giants (devs), old witches, and so on in Uzbekdastans. We cannot know whether the image of the many-headed monsterentered the Turkish tradition from the Mongol or vice versa.

432 CHAO GEJIN

A Mongolian Obo in southern Xinjiang. An Obo serves as a site for various forms ofworship. Photograph by the author.

Comparing different epic traditions among Altaic peoples is achallenging project. Mongols and the Turkic-speaking peoples of CentralAsia—the Uzbeks, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Kirghiz, and others—have beenlinked ethnically and culturally for centuries. These diverse peoples alsoshare a similar historical development. Scholars have made us familiar withthe predatory raids conducted into Central Asia by the “pagan Kalmyks”during the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries that won them a negativereputation and portrayed them as the most threatening enemies of the CentralAsian Muslims. Thus it is logical and understandable that in some Turkicepics the hero’s enemy is a Kalmyk khan or warrior. Correspondingly, in afew Jangar cantos a Turkic khan and his property become their enemies’booty.

Jangar studies in China began in the 1950s with a few papers printedin journals and newspapers; academic scholarship stems from the 1980s.Today hundreds of papers appear each year in Mongolian, Oirat clear script,and Chinese all over the country. A handful of editions and translations


have appeared as well, revealing the comprehensive and systematic researchnow underway.30

Institute of Ethnic LiteratureChinese Academy of Social Sciences

30 A quick review of relevant publications may help scholars without either

Mongolian or Chinese to gain a sense of research developments in China: (1)Rinchindorji 1999 is a revised edition of his previous work (The Heroic Epic Jangar,Chinese, Zhejiang Education Press, Hangzhou, 1990 and On Jangar, Chinese, InnerMongolia University Press, Hohhot, 1994). Rinchindorji has studied epic Jangar formany years; he has conducted extensive fieldwork in Mongolian regions and assembled alarge archive of tape recordings. His writing concentrates on epic themes and structure aswell as its distribution and artistic accomplishments. (2) Jagar’s Studies on Epic Jangar(Mongolian, Inner Mongolia Education Press, Hohhot, 1993) consists of five chapters.The first two cover publications and research concerning Jangar, while the followingchapters deal with such topics as plot, theme, structure, rhetoric, character, and folk life.This is an introductory work. (3) The Aesthetics of the 13-Canto Jangar (Mongolian,Inner Mongolia Education Press, Hohhot, 1995) proceeds from an aesthetic perspective.The author, Gerel, tries to probe into the Mongolian people’s idea of beauty through ananalysis of their epic creativity. Deficient knowledge about international aesthetics andacademic rigor weaken the book’s theoretical proposals. (4) As a native scholar’s work,Jamcha’s Jangar, based on personal observations, brings us a vivid and detailed accountof the epic tradition. His The Source of Epic Jangar appeared both in his nativelanguage, clear script Mongolian, and in Chinese (Xinjiang People’s Publishing House,Urumchi, 1996 and 1997). A hard-working investigator of Jangar, this amateur scholarraises some now outdated concerns; the attempt to combine the epic hero and ChinggisKhan is but one example. Moreover, his exclusive focus on own people’s epicaccomplishments constrains his judgment and renders some of his hypotheses simplistic.(5) Jin Feng’s Jangar: Yellow Four States (Mongolian, Inner Mongolia Culture and ArtsPress, Hailar, 1996) is a questionable work. A professor of Mongolian history, especiallythe western Mongols, he tries to draw a direct connection between Jangar and realhistory. Some of his linguistic explanations are unconvincing. An oral traditionalcomposition, Jangar contains different historical layers and boundless imagination. (6)Epic Jangar and the Mongolian Culture (Mongolian, Inner Mongolia People’sPublishing House, Hohhot, 1998), by Sarangerel, sets out to demonstrate how well theepic cycle reflects Mongolian culture but is ultimately unpersuasive. (7) Jangar and theMongolian Religious Culture (Chinese, Inner Mongolia University Press, Hohhot, 1999),composed by Sechinbatu, treats religious elements and meaning in Jangar. Theconclusion that shamanistic incantation was the predecessor of Mongolian epic singingbears further examination. (8) Chao Gejin’s Oral Poetics: Formulaic Diction ofArimpil’s Jangar Singing (Chinese, Guangxi People’s Publishing House, Nanning, 2000)is the first work to concentrate on a certain canto from one singer; its aim is to explain thecore feature of Mongolian traditional oral poetics, namely, formulaic diction. The Oral-Formulaic Theory is applied in the book.

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